The inventive concepts described herein relate to a signal generator, and more particularly, relate to a simplified triangular wave generator and a triangular wave generating method thereof.
A signal generator may be a device which periodically generates an AC signal. The signal generator may generate AC signals such as a sine wave, a square wave, a triangular wave, a saw-tooth wave, and the like, and its shape may be different according to a frequency and amplitude.
Among signal generators, a signal generator generating a triangular wave signal may be referred to as a triangular wave generator. The triangular wave generator may generate an input waveform of a digital circuit. This may enable it to be used to analyze a digital circuit or to generate a sweep signal (e.g., a signal having a bendy direction) at a deflection circuit.
The triangular wave generator may generate a triangular wave signal by charging or discharging capacitors, for example. The triangular wave generator may include current sources for charging or discharging and comparators (e.g., formed of amplifiers) for detecting an upper peak value and a lower peak value of a triangular wave signal. Besides, the triangular wave generator may necessitate elements such as a switch for connecting or disconnecting current sources to or from capacitors to control charging or discharging of capacitors, a flip-flop controlling an operation of the switch based on output values of the comparators, and the like.
Due to many elements, the triangular wave generator may need control signals for controlling currents of the current sources and control voltages to be provided to the comparators as a reference voltage.
As many elements and control signals (or, control voltages) are required to generate a triangular wave, the triangular wave generator may be complicated and cause an increase in a chip size.